BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
A SADC helpline project which is being implemented in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Malawi has reached over 22 000 adolescents and young people to access integrated HIV services.
The projected which was piloted in three districts in the three countries, Zvishavane (Zimbabwe), Francistown (Botswana) and Zomba (Malawi) has been famed for improving the wellbeing of youths.
Tatenda Songore, Executive Director of Youth Advocates who are spearheading the project also revealed that they have gone beyond issues to do with HIV prevention or treatment, to include other social support services.
“All of the 22 000 youths have been actually tested for HIV and we have managed to get at least 4 percent of them who were diagnosed HIV positive and they were put on treatment.
“We are very excited also on the fact that 94 percent of young people who were diagnosed HIV positive are on treatment, actually the figure is 96 percent, which means we have surpassed the 95 percent target for the UNAIDS.
“So these are the key achievements and we are looking at scaling up this project.
“The impact of this project has been seen beyond HIV prevention, to address issues of drug and substance, gender based violence to also helping young people to return back to school after they were out of school because of different problems.
“We know that when young people are out of school, they are more vulnerable to risky behaviour and HIV so we have been able to return young people using 393 helpline within the three countries,” said Songore.
Both Malawi and Zimbabwe use 393 toll free helplines while for Botswana it’s 16658, which youths can access and get help on various issues affecting them.
When the youths call the toll free lines, they are helped through ongoing counselling services, information dissemination and referral to services and follow-up on the uptake of such services.
Songore further revealed that those youths who were having challenges with drug and substance abuse, were given mental health support.
“Some of the most interesting achievements of this project also look at how we were also able to look beyond the fact that when young people are on drug and substance abuse, they are more vulnerable to GBV.
“They are more vulnerable to risky behaviour and we have been able to support about 7 000 young people who were showing symptoms of drug and substance use and we have also been able to put them on mental health support beyond the project,” he revealed.
He also revealed that since drug and substance abuse is now a pandemic in the region, they had been able to leverage on the HIV fund from SADC which has seen them addressing several issues that put young people at risk.
Further commenting on the 393 toll free youth helpline, Songore said when any young person in the country uses it, they can make a call or whatsapp or use chat box where they can be educated using written formats, video and audio formats.
He also revealed that the platform has registered tremendous success because over 90 percent of users complete their courses unlike the traditional way of communicating with young people.
“They (youths) are more concentrated, they are more focused, they do it at their own pace and we are able to address multiple issues from HIV.
“We are also able to address mental health, we are also able to address emerging issues like cholera and we also able to respond and educate young people on measles as well,” added Songore.
He also revealed that in Zimbabwe they had piloted the SADC Youth Help Line in Zvishavane “because of high activity of artisanal miners, issues of drug and substance abuse, issues of young people who were dropping out of school and going to do artisanal mining.
“Child marriages are also very rampant, so we explored Zvishavane to try and explore those issues using mobile technology and we have been very effective because in Zvishavane alone, we reached 8 600 young people in a period of two years and in a rural community, this is very much a significant figure.”
Speaking at the same function, Jeremia Manyika, UNAIDS Zimbabwe: Adviser: Equality and Rights for all; said it was commendable to see young people showing leadership, adding that it was resonating well with the last year’s International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) theme, “let communities lead”.
“We are really emphasizing the theme of let communities lead, we are very delighted that we see the communities actually leading and when we say communities we are actually talking about the actual people that are affected and infected by HIV.
“And in this case we talking about young people and they are there in their numbers leading the project and we are very elated and happy about that development,” he said.
He added that it was good that partners had collaborated to make this a success for the benefit of young people.
“Again to reiterate our theme let communities lead, the UNAIDS Global AIDS strategy provides guidance to countries towards ending AIDS by 2030 and we are talking about what we call the 30-60-80 and these are targets that are really important if we are to meet them we will be able to end AIDS by 2030.
“We are saying 30 percent of HIV treatment services should be led by communities and when we say communities of young people it is young people who should be leading the services.
“Then 60 percent of programmes to address barriers to HIV care and support should also be led by communities and when we talk of communities, communities of young people should be leading the programmes to end stigma, to end discrimination to address barriers to HIV care and support and 80 percentage of programmes for women, young people and key populations must be led and coordinated by women, young people and the key populations themselves for us to be able to end AIDS within those communities let communities lead.
“So the 30-60-80 targets are a reality when we witness communities taking leadership and ownership of programmes as we see in this intervention, the call line 393.
“Am happy to note that the intervention has contributed significantly to achieving the 95-95-95 targets by increasing uptake of…HIV testing services by young people.
“As we move towards sustainability approaches to the HIV epidemic, we are excited to see communities lead and we are excited to see communities lead initiatives that demonstrate effective engagement of young people in their diversity to ensure that no-one and no place is left behind.
“It is noteworthy that the youth helpline goes beyond HIV prevention and treatment to address broader issues of social protection, mental health, gender based violence substance abuse among other challenges being faced by young people,” added Manyika.
Freeman Dube, Research and Documentation Coordinator at National Aids Council (NAC) said they had endorsed the project which had not only improved the lives of young people but also adults.
“We should celebrate those achievements and we as NAC have even said what is good as the way forward, is we integrate the work of the call centre within existing programmes.
“And by the way the capacity of the line is not only for Zvishavane District although it was the focus of the SADC project, the capacity is national, so our districts as NAC is to integrate promotional activities for the call centre to be utilized across the country,” said Dube.
Thando Madondo, who is one of the beneficiaries of the Youth Advocates project said he was supported in his passion for music, recording three songs.
He also revealed that the empowerment by Youth Advocates had been a good escape for him as some of his peers in his community have fallen to drugs.
“On the issue of drug and substance abuse, I know for a fact that they will ruin one’s life, you won’t make any progress.
“If I look at the community where I live, many youths have fallen to drugs, you will see young people smoking weed, but because of the guidance I get here at Youth Advocates, I just made a I vow that I won’t partake in drug and substance abuse, it destroys my life, so I rather just empower my life.
“I recorded three songs under Youth Advocates, namely, Youth Advocate, which showcases the brand of the organisation as a whole, then there is another one called Zvinodhaka, I sang it after some youths died during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those who died were under the wrong influence, like I remember some would say if they take whiskey, they would not contract covid, but this was wrong. Then I also did a song called Child marriage which really touched on this growing scourge in the country,” added Madondo whose stage name is Firemaster.
Guests from Malawi, Botswana, government ministries, students among others, attended the event which was held at Youth Advocates head office in Chitungwiza.
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